


AC20 Day 1: The Cloak

by The_Rose



Series: Rose's Advent Calendar 2020 [1]
Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft
Genre: But we conveniently forget about the following expansions, F/M, Fluff, Little stories inside a bigger one, Post-Legion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27824536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Rose/pseuds/The_Rose
Summary: All through his childhood, Khalari remembers that his mom had been there, and with her mom, there was her Warden's cloak to protect him.
Relationships: Maiev Shadowsong & Khadgar, Maiev Shadowsong & OC, Maiev Shadowsong/Illidan Stormrage
Series: Rose's Advent Calendar 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036257
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	AC20 Day 1: The Cloak

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> December 1st means that we are 24 days away from Christmas and whether we celebrate or not, let's use it as an excuse to get 24 new fics all through the month! 
> 
> I have 22 planned to be centered around Illidan and Maiev, and there will be 2 that aren't, and I hope you'll like them all ^^
> 
> Enjoy this first one, it's just the beginning ;)

The sunrays were softly going through the windows as a light breeze was blowing through the curtains, cooling down the austere white room. Outside of the window, Dalaran was busy with mundane activities, not caring about the rest of the world at war with each other as the Kirin Tor made sure that the floating city would stay neutral no matter what. And it was why Maiev had come here, for that feeling of safety that the city was offering to her.

Sighing, she adjusted herself against the pillow and she looked down, a genuine smile over her face as she gently caressed the face of the newborn. She was keeping him close to her chest, carrying him in her cloak to protect him from the cold and any other invisible threats, even if she knew that it was useless and that they were safe. Leaning down, she put a light kiss on his forehead, and with that, he slightly opened his eyes, showing the bright golden color and Maiev chuckled lightly as she shook her head.

“I’m sure Illidan would hate it,” she whispered, her thumb brushing his face. “But he would quickly get used to it and love you so much.”

Her lips twitched at that idea and she let herself fall back against the pillow maintaining her in a sitting position, and she sighed once again. It wasn’t the time to think about it, she wouldn’t change the past after all. What had been done was done.

Suddenly, knocks on the door got her out of her mind as Khadgar entered the room after announcing his presence, a big smile spread across his face and a bouquet of flowers in his hands. She only glared at him, in a way to make him understand that he had to be quiet, and he simply nodded as he went to put the bouquet inside the vase next to the bed.

“So,” he began, almost whispering. “I heard that everything went fine?”

“Better than we expected,” she chuckled. “And he’s here.”

Saying that, she moved her head towards the newborn in her arms, and Khadgar immediately went to look at him, only to stop and frown as he saw the baby. He was looking pretty much normal with a bright rosy skin; a little patch of dark blue hair over his head; a glimpse of golden eyes, not that surprising for the Night Elves; but what really caught his attention, was that the baby had a pair of leathery wings curled around him like a cocoon. Khadgar only furrowed his eyebrows as he slowly went back to look at Maiev, who was biting her lower lips as she was perfectly aware that hiding the truth about the father wasn’t a possibility at all.

“Maiev, one serious question,” began Khadgar, crossing his arms over his bust. “Why didn’t you tell us?! We could have stopped him!”

And here they were again.

“I was planning to tell the truth,” she replied, bitterness all over her voice. “But I couldn’t imagine that this fucker was going to exile himself instead of coming back!”

“One more reason to tell us! We could have told him and prevented him from leaving!”

Stepping back, Khadgar put a hand over his face, rubbing it and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I… I thought that you were finally trusting me when you told me you were pregnant and wanted to be removed from the fights for the time being. I even helped to make up a lie to explain why you weren’t following us, but I thought it’s because you simply had a one-night stand and didn’t know the father…”

“I had my reasons,” she glared at him. “We needed Illidan to be focused at one hundred percent in this war… And if he had learned that he was going to be a father, it wouldn’t have been the case.”

Khadgar only shook his head as he was disproving the reasoning of the Warden, even if he was mainly frustrated to find out that two of the people he had worked the closest with, succeeded to hide a relationship from him. Now, he was wondering what else he had missed during all those months fighting against the Legion.

“Will… Will you be alright? Raising a child by yourself?”

“I should. I already contacted Jarod and he knew I was pregnant, and he’s ready to give me his support…”

“I hear a “but” coming,” pointed out Khadgar.

“But I haven’t told him either who’s the father,” she finally sighed.

“And where are you going to live? There are some pretty good places here in Dalaran if you need…”

“I was planning on going to Stormwind, or at least close to it,” quickly interrupted Maiev. “Dalaran is a little too “magic” for my liking, and most of the Kaldorei lives around Stormwind now, so I think it’s the better choice.”

“Understandable,” gently nodded Khadgar, only wishing the best for Maiev. “But if you ever need help, I’ll be there.”

“Thanks, Khadgar,” simply smiled Maiev, looking again at the newborn in her arms.

“Oh, I’m stupid,” quickly added the Archmage, giving a soft tap on his forehead. “I forgot to ask, what’s his name?”

“Khalari,” Maiev replied as she put back her cloak over the little body, gently taking one of the tiny hands between her fingers.

Opening the cupboard, Maiev frowned as she saw it being empty, as she should have expected. Shaking her head from the negligence, she quickly closed it back and moved around the house, taking a quick glance at the weather outside, and noticing that the risk of rain was pretty high for the day. But she had no other choice and she needed to get out if she wanted to be able to put food on the table for the evening, and she knew that Goldshire was probably the closest of where she was living. Grabbing her Warden’s cloak, that she knew would protect her in case of rain, she put it around her shoulders and made her way towards the stairs.

“Khalari?” she called towards the second floor. “Khalari?”

“Yes?” a little voice replied, muffled by the distance.

“I need to go quickly to Goldshire, so I’m counting on you to –”

Fast steps went down the stairs, and before Maiev could finish her sentence, the little boy was in front of her, stars in his eyes.

“Can I come with you?! Please!”

Maiev quickly crouched to be at his level, taking his little hands with her as she smiled at him.

“Are you sure? I’m just going to buy something, and it might rain.”

“I’m sure!” he claimed.

“Alright, but I need you to be brave and nice.”

“I will!”

And following those words, he went to grab the little coat that was hanging next to the door and tried to put it on, only to miss the sleeve and giving Maiev no other choices but to help her little boy. With a smile, she crouched again, kneeling in front of him and she grabbed the coat, helping him to put it on.

“Thanks mom!”

Maiev only kept her smile as she brushed his hair, a simple way of showing her affection to her child, but he loved it. Then, she proceeded to open the door and let him get out first, as she locked it once they were out, but before she could take one step, Khalari was standing in front of her, his hands reaching to her and she took it. Finally, Khalari began to lead the way, pulling on Maiev’s hand to make her go faster.

As expected, in only a few minutes, they had reached the border of the village and quickly, the road began to be more crowded and soon enough, the different sounds of a living place were all over the place. As Maiev began to search after the afternoon market, she felt Khalari hand tightening his grasp, and with a quick glance, she could see that something was wrong. He was holding on to his coat, next to his heart, looking everywhere as if he had noticed something scary, or at least was expecting something scary to happen. But Maiev knew what it was.

“Hey, Khalari? Want to play a game?” she asked as she crouched to be at his level.

Not without some difficulties to look at his mother, as he was constantly looking everywhere, his eyes unable to stay still as green highlights were flashing from time to time, he simply nodded to accept, because he knew that if his mom was asking that, it was to help him.

“Hide and seek, and I’ll be the one to hide you alright?” she kept asking, opening a way inside her cloak.

“Invisible?” he succeeded to ask.

“Yes, you will be invisible,” affirmed Maiev, vividly nodding to keep his attention.

Immediately, Khalari jumped into the opening, and as Maiev stood up, he was hiding against her leg and completely hidden under the thick material. One of the passersby looked at them, furrowing his eyebrow, but with just one glare from Maiev, he quickly lowered his head and walked faster. One of the good things about being the Warden was that whether she was wearing her armor or not, Maiev could always make people shut up just by her presence, and when trying to raise a child such as Khalari, it was really helpful.

She sighed as she gently brushed his hair, cursing Illidan's demonic inheritance. Unfortunately, they had to come to an agreement that Khalari had probably inherited the spectral sight of his father, or at least had gotten some really good and precise eyesight, and the more crowded place was easily scaring him, as his sight would go haywire and show him too many details. So, to fight it, Maiev had decided to once again start bathing her cloak in demons’ blood, and then, use it to shield Khalari. He was practically going blind, as he was just seeing a wall of green texture, but as she would always be there with him and holding his hand, it wasn’t bothering him more than that.

Also knowing that Khalari was still a little child, and that his concentration would probably switch to something else really fast, Maiev quickly made her way through the village until she had reached the nearest market carts, and that she could finally buy some food for the evening. All the time, she made sure to keep Khalari’s hand in hers, her thumb brushing his little hand in a way to tell him that she was there.

Once it was done and that Maiev was satisfied with what she had bought, they made their way out of the village, and she had expected Khalari to come out of the cloak, but instead, she heard him giggling about how he was invisible, and she decided to let him have fun. After all, he was spending most of his time in the house, and even Maiev wasn’t sure how to find an occupation for him, as she had no idea what he could do. She had thought a few times that she should bring him to the Kaldorei sanctuary, and meet with other Night Elves children, but just the thought that they could meet with Malfurion and Tyrande was angering her. She knew she could put her past anger to the side to have discussions with them, but just the idea of them judging Khalari just because his father happened to be Illidan, was enough to make her blood boil and avoid the place like the Scourge.

Suddenly, a big thunderclap echoed through the forest, and immediately, the rain began to fall down, without any more warnings.

Maiev felt Khalari jumping against her leg and grabbing it firmly, probably scared of the sudden noises, and she stopped for a moment, not caring about getting soaked as she tried her best to hug him to comfort him, without moving too much as she knew that the cloak was thick enough to not let a single raindrop pass. And indeed, under it, Khalari slowly began to admire his dry arms despite seeing the heavy rain falling through the interstice of the cloak.

His mom was really protecting him.

“Mom, can I ask something?”

Maiev took a deep breath and sighed with relief. Ever since Khalari came back home from his druidism lesson of the day, he had been sitting on the couch, clearly unwell and looking endlessly at the same page of the book he was pretending to read. Finally, he put it down and looked at his mother, knowing he couldn’t keep it for himself.

“I… Is… Is there a problem with my father?” he finally asked, bringing back his legs against him as he almost buried his face in his arms, wrapped around his knees. “And me?”

Those last two words had been whispered, more than probably because he didn’t want his mother to hear it, but it was bothering him too much to keep it for himself. Unfortunately for him, she heard it and her knuckles became white from grasping over her old cloak, that she was trying to find a good place to put it away, now that Khalari had a way better control over his sight. She discreetly breathed deeply, trying to calm herself as it wasn’t the time to show anger in front of her teenager.

“What do you mean by that?” she gently asked, decided to ignore the last words for the time being.

Khalari curled up a little more on himself, and even his wings went to wrap over him, as if he was trying to get as small as possible. He looked away, not sure how to formulate his observation.

“Last night… When I stayed at uncle Malfurion’s house…” he began, slowly speaking. “I heard him and Tyrande. They were arguing about dad… And me.”

It was finally out. And Maiev knew that she was going to have a little conversation with those two as fast as possible. Or she would kill them, easier and faster. They would regret having made such a mistake, and she was going to be sure that they would pay for it. She would have no mercy for them. But for now, she had to quickly act if she didn’t want her child to fall into some depression over his family.

“It’s nothing,” she said as she went to sit next to him, putting her cloak over the back of the couch. “See, Illidan and they had some conflicts, long long ago. A pretty big conflict actually, and it ended with them… Not talking to each other for millennia.”

Maiev knew that it was a pretty big understatement, but she had decided long ago to not dump all the problematic things that Illidan had done on Khalari until he would at least be an adult, and probably not until a good thousand years to be sure. And despite that she had told Malfurion herself about it, as it would be extremely cruel to just yell at a child that his father was a murderer and had to be killed at some point, and that he agreed on it, he had been careless enough to argue with Tyrande about Khalari, when the child was around.

“And after that, they haven’t really seen each other,” continued Maiev, forgetting about the Third War on purpose. “And actually, as far as I remember, the last time your father was there, I don’t even think they exchanged a word or saw each other at all. And it was there that your father really showed that he had changed, and that I even gave him a chance… So, as they haven’t seen it, they are still in their old mindset that they can’t be nice to each other.”

Khalari stayed silent and kept looking on the side, clearly more hurt than what he wanted to show to Maiev, but she was going to have none of that. Gently, she grabbed him and brought him on her lap as she immediately began to rock him. Remembering the cloak that she had left next to her head, she also took it and put it around Khalari, cocooning him as she did after his birth.

“The only problem with your father, is that he had no idea that I was pregnant and that he left, thinking it was for the greater good,” she sighed, knowing that she would never be able to pardon him for that, while never pardoning herself to have kept it a secret. “But there’s absolutely no problem with you.”

She could see a tear falling down his cheek, but as he noticed, he quickly turned his face to bury it against Maiev, searching for a hug that she gladly gave him. As she gently caressed the back of his head, she kept rocking him in a way to lull him towards sleep, a thing that she hadn’t done in years.

“You are great,” she told him. “You will be a wonderful druid, and no matter what anyone says, you are your own person. You shouldn’t have to care about who is your father, or his family. You are you. You are Khalari, and you will make your own destiny.”

Despite being the one saying those words, Maiev couldn’t stop herself from mentally winced. Great, now she was talking like Illidan, making such a cheesy statement wasn’t her. But well, that idiot had decided to fuck off far away in space, so someone had to do those cheesy statements for him.

“Thanks, Mom,” replied Khalari, closing his eyes as Maiev began to hum a song, still rocking him in her cloak.

With a glance, Maiev sighed as she looked at Khalari, frantically searching after something in the house. She shook his head but said nothing, as, after all, he was old enough to ask for help without having it to be proposed in the first place, and it was true that he had grown a lot. He was slowly reaching the end of the teenage years, even if he was far from being an adult, and every time she was seeing the growing beard on his chin, she couldn’t stop herself from giggling. As she had to watch over Illidan for over ten thousand years, she knew that he had never been able to grow a beard, and knowing that his son was doing it, was amusing her. On his head, the horns were slowly looking more like antlers as the weeks were passing, and yet, when she was looking at his face, she was seeing Illidan.

“Mom?” Khalari finally asked, only glancing at her.

“Yes?”

“Do you think that I could borrow your old Warden cloak for today?”

Maiev furrowed her eyebrows as she realized what he was asking, wondering why such a question. And mostly why her old cloak from all the stuff they had in the house.

“I guess… Why that?”

“We are going to try an experiment today,” he began to explain with a really serious look, and yet his eyes were shining with excitement, exactly in the same way that Illidan's face would when he was plotting. “We need to bring an object that reminds us of a really strong childhood memory, and see if it could affect our abilities, and if it affects them in a good, or a bad way.”

Maiev had completely stopped listening as soon as Khalari admitted that her old cloak was a strong memory of his childhood, and she felt her throat becoming dry at that thought. After the destruction of Nordrassil in the Third War, and the loss of the blessings from the Aspects, the Kaldorei had noticed that indeed, the newer generations were changing, and just by seeing her little boy, almost an adult and talking about his childhood as something long gone, it was almost hurting. After all, when she was his age, she was still a little child, far away from imagining what her own adulthood would be.

Slowly, she got out of the couch and reached the hidden wardrobe, the one containing her precious Warden armor in a perfect state, as she could never know when she would be needed back on a battlefield despite the relative peace that Azeroth was knowing. And from it, she carefully removed the cloak and then, reached it to Khalari.

“Here, you can have it,” she smiled at him.

With a slight shake from his hands, Khalari grabbed it, looking at it while doing his best to not stand in awe.

“Sure?” he finally asked after swallowing.

“Oh sure,” Maiev chuckled as she went in the cupboard under the armor, removing another Warden cloak to put back with the armor. “I have new ones that I could use if needed. But that one will be yours now.”

The smile on his face wasn’t leaving him as he observed the cloak, the one that had been there for him since his very first day, and that as long as he remembered, had always been there in the hardest time. Now, it was going to be permanently his, and he was loving it. Quickly, he put it around his shoulders and adjusted it, well-decided to proudly wear it now.

“Thanks Mom, I love you.”

And with those words, he took her in his arms to hug her and she gave back the hug.

“I love you too, sweety.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Tomorrow: A smutty one-shot.
> 
> See you tomorrow and every day until Christmas with a new fic!
> 
> \----  
> Unfortunately, English isn't my first language so if someone is interested in becoming my beta-reader for the language, hit me up on my Tumblr!  
> Or if you just want to talk about WoW, my fics, someone else fics, or anything, you can still hit me up there!
> 
> https://thewritingof-therose.tumblr.com/
> 
> or on Discord
> 
> https://discord.gg/nvKggwc (An Illidan/Maiev Discord)
> 
> Later!
> 
> (Comments are welcomed and appreciated :D)


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